


Much Ado About Hotchner

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 18:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2438450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It'll be like sleep away camp…get your mind out of the gutter.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Much Ado About Hotchner

Emily was in the kitchen opening a second bottle of Riesling when she heard the knock on the door. She wasn’t expecting company and wasn’t fond of people showing up unannounced. She said a prayer to whoever controlled that kind of thing that her mother wasn’t on the other side of that door. Elizabeth Prentiss never thought the rules applied to her. That included her daughter’s rules. Emily had been having a good evening after a succession of bad ones; she didn’t want anything to mess that up.

“Was that your door?” Garcia asked getting up from a chair.

“Yeah, could you get that Penelope? I'm working on a very stubborn cork over here.”

“Sure.”

Garcia practically bounced to the door, high on life and wine. She looked through the peephole, giggled, and opened the door.

“Hi.” She greeted him with a smile.

“Um, hi.” Hotch stepped over the threshold. “Garcia, what are you doing here?”

“I think I'm the one who should be asking that question.”

“Who is it, Penelope?” Emily asked from the kitchen. She’d almost gotten the cork out.

“It’s a man. He says he’s here to strip for us and show us his credentials.”

“Penelope…” Hotch almost smiled.

“Did you say strip?” Jordan Todd sat up from the couch and smiled at her one-time superior. “Hey Hotch!”

“Hotch.” Emily froze for a moment wondering what to do next. Aaron Hotchner showed up at her door on a Friday night and she had a houseful of guests.

JJ came back down the hall from the bathroom. As soon as she saw the Unit Chief, her smile disappeared.

“If you're here to tell us about a case we plan to gag you with your tie and put you in that trunk in Emily’s guest room.” she said.

“Remind me never to make you angry, JJ.” He replied.

“You got it boss. This isn’t about a case is it?”

“No. Um, is Emily actually here?”

“I'm here.” She came out of the kitchen holding the bottle of wine. “Normally I don’t use men for their brute strength but I could use a little help with this wine bottle.”

“Hurry,” Jordan said laughing. “We’re not allowed empty glasses tonight and mine is almost there.”

“First empty glass strips.” JJ said, laughing.

“My underwear doesn’t match today.” Jordan replied.

“Even better.” Now Emily was laughing. She snickered some more when she saw the horrified look on Hotch’s face.

Penelope closed the door and went back into the living room and the _Law and Order_ marathon on TV. They were going to watch a movie, and bickering about which one, when the wine got too low and the boss man showed up.

“I can't seem to get it.” Emily put the bottle back on the counter. “Maybe you can help.”

“Sure.” Hotch took hold of the corkscrew and started twisting.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her tone low.

“I don't know really. I just thought…I wanted to talk. It was presumptuous of me to think you didn’t have a life; might have friends over.”

“You know I don’t have a life Hotch, we work together. I do however have friends over. It was a shitty week. Garcia declared on Wednesday if we were in town this weekend it was going to be girls only Friday. There would be wine, takeout, movies, and vices.”

“Vices?” Hotch raised an eyebrow. “Should I even ask?”

“You can if you want. You might end up in that trunk though.”

“Threatening a federal officer could get you a lot of jail time, Agent Prentiss. Aha,” Hotch smiled when the cork popped. “Let there be wine.”

“Wine!” Emily exclaimed.

“Hallelujah.” Jordan sang.

JJ came into the kitchen, quickly grabbed the bottle after Emily poured herself a glass, and made her way out.

“I should probably go.” Hotch started walking toward the door. Emily had no choice but to follow, he wasn’t stopping.

“Are you alright, Hotch? Hey? Aaron?” She put her hand on his arm to stop him. “What's going on?”

“Nothing, really. I just wanted to talk. You weren't the only one who had a bad week. But I see you're having a good time tonight and I'm not going to take you away from that.”

“What are you going to do?” Emily asked.

“Go home and try to relax. Maybe I’ll put in a movie and have a drink. Maybe we can…”

“Brunch tomorrow?”

“I don't know if you'll be up at that time tomorrow.” Hotch replied.

“We’ll be passing out soon I'm sure. Penelope has already claimed the right side of the guestroom bed. She insists the left side is lumpy. Jordan’s sleeping with me.”

“I'm sorry?”

“It'll be like sleep away camp…get your mind out of the gutter.” Emily smiled.

“I don’t know; that might take some time. And perhaps some more thought.”

“Cute. Just in case I do oversleep, which I surely deserve, how about lunch? We can meet up at three?”

“Are you sure?” Hotch asked.

“I'm positive.”

“Where?”

“I haven’t been to Kaffee in Alexandria in a while.”

“Kaffee it is.” He smiled. “I’ll let you get back to your girls’ night. I'm sorry for showing up unannounced.”

“I'm sorry I couldn’t keep you.” Emily replied.

“I’d stay but there is this little part of me that fears for my life.”

At that moment, JJ burst into laughter and threw a pillow at Jordan. Emily turned back to look at her friends’ shenanigans. It was time to wrap this up; she needed to have some fun too.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Hotch opened the door, took Emily’s hand and pulled her outside. In the hallway he gave her a soft kiss on the lips. It was a little more than chaste and less than hot. It was warm though, Emily felt nice and warm.

“Goodnight Hotch.”

“Goodnight. Goodnight ladies.”

“Bye Hotch!” they exclaimed in unison.

He smiled once more and headed to the elevator. Emily went back inside, closing and locking the door.

“I want details.” Jordan said when Emily joined her on the couch.

“Details of what?”

“Look how adorable she is when she plays clueless.” Garcia said smiling. “Unit Chiefs don’t just show up unannounced. What was that about, Peaches?”

“He just wanted to talk.”

“Is that what they're calling it these days?” JJ asked. “How many of your languages is Hotch fluent in?”

“Oh c'mon, stop it.” Emily sipped her wine. “Hotch and I are just friends; just like I'm friends with you guys. He had a bad week too…sometimes we blow off steam together.”

“Mmm, that sounds like fun.” Jordan laughed.

Emily smirked, punching her arm. She was supposed to be spending the evening with the girls and here they were talking about men. Why did it always come to this? At the same time, she was worried about Hotch.

She was worried about him and wished he was there with her instead of heading home alone. But Emily knew that wasn’t fair to her friends. Their time together was so minimal as it was; she needed to put her all into tonight. When her iPhone buzzed on her hip, she grabbed it and looked at its display.

“Who is it?” Penelope asked.

“Even when I find out, I'm not telling you. Can we stop bickering, and speculating, and pick a movie?”

“My vote is _Much Ado about Nothing_.” Jordan said. “I can go for a Denzel fix.”

“That’s a good idea.” JJ replied.

“I'm for it.” Penelope said.

“Good.” Emily nodded. “JJ put the movie in please. I’ll put on some popcorn and make this quick phone call.”

“Tell Hotch I said hi.” Penelope grinned.

“That’s very funny, Garcia.”

Emily went into the kitchen, pushing 4 on her cell phone as she put the popcorn in the microwave.

“I didn’t mean for you to call me.” Hotch said. “I didn’t want to interrupt your time.”

“Are you sure you're alright? You're worrying me.”

“I just wish I was with you tonight. I'm sorry.”

“Why would you be sorry about that? Are you going to see Jack this weekend?” Emily asked.

“We’ll be together on Sunday afternoon.”

“Then tomorrow you're all mine, Agent Hotchner. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty good at cheering you up.”

“Yes, you are.” Hotch replied.

“So tomorrow that’s exactly what I'm gonna do.”

“I’ll see you then. Goodnight, Emily.”

“Goodnight.”

She hung up the phone and put it back on her hip. When one bag of popcorn was done Emily threw in another and got back into friend mode. She had to wear many hats, sometimes all at the same time. Tonight she didn’t feel like wearing any. Tonight was about girlfriends, wine, and movies. Tomorrow might be something else altogether but she would deal with it tomorrow.

***

  



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